HATFIELD — A 19th century sleigh used by Dr. Charles A. Byrne to make house calls to Hatfield residents during the post-Civil War years sits in a century-old tobacco barn, covered in a bit of dust, with its paint fading and metal pieces broken off. The fabric on the sleigh’s upholstered seat is frayed and worn, the lining is gone, and there is evidence of it being nibbled on by rodents.

Before embarking on any project to historically preserve the sleigh housed in the the Mary Lou and Robert J. Cutter Hatfield Farm Museum, though, Hatfield Historical Museum Curator Meguey Baker says there is a need to identify and better understand the “wonderful jumble” of equipment in the old tobacco shed, most that are associated with the town’s agricultural history over the past 200 years, including buckets of farm tools, a wall of crosscut saws, a blacksmith table piled with metal pieces and a wooden wheelbarrow overflowing with horse gear. 

“It would be lovely to have the sleigh conserved, but without knowing what’s here, we can’t do that next step,” Baker says.

The agricultural repository, in a building without any climate control, is about to undergo an inventory using an $185,000, three-year Community Preservation Act grant awarded by voters at Town Meeting that will cover staff hours and supplies.

This project will add to the society’s database that includes holdings in both the Farm Museum and the Historical Society Museum, upstairs in the library where paper and textile and more sensitive items are held and displayed, as well items in storage elsewhere in town.

“The goal, in the end, is to have everything photographed and described and cataloged, then to figure out the conservation,” Baker said. 

While open to the public on a regular basis, there is not much of an organized display, aside from a portion of the barn where a tobacco sorting shop with stools is set up, showing how workers would arrange the product, and nearby a few rows of dried tobacco continue to hang.

Bringing some order to the building begins Tuesday. The first thing is to locate everything in the building, with Baker leading the project and being assisted by three paid staff members, Annika Sturmer and Elliot and Tovey Baker, as well as community volunteers and students.  Baker already has bought some 2,000 tags that will be attached to objects, pens to write descriptions and other details on the tags, fans to circulate air and equipment to ensure a good Wi-Fi connection. 

“It’s a three-year project, so it will take a lot of hands,” Baker said, adding that there are narrow periods of time in which people can work comfortably inside the shed without air conditioning in the summer and just space heaters in the winter.

Those doing the inventorying will rely on work previously done by George Ashley, the former curator who did a partial inventory and placed tags and labels on many items. Baker said standardizing these details and getting them into a database is important. Ashley is also providing his notebooks.

“There’s a real question of how far one person got with the help he had,” Baker said.  “We know it’s not complete, so we’ll be building on that.” 

The building is being segmented into what Baker calls “bents,” a sensible approach to investigating and recording what is found. “Each item gets picked up, looked up, analyzed and photographed,” Baker said.

Baker said she will be working with John Pease, who curates the museum, which will remain open to the public, to identify donors and the background of items. Like Ashley, Pease brings knowledge of an item’s provenance.

“Ideally, you know who used it, its purpose, and who donated it,” Baker said.

The Byrne sled and the Langdon family sleighs are among the larger pieces inside the building, but there are also looms and sewing wheels, a metal sign for the Sophia Smith Tea Room, coming from a time when the Smith College founder’s 18th century home in Hatfield was used as a bed and breakfast, a late 1800s street lamp from town center that originally was gas powered and transitioned to electric power, as well as butter churns and a number of scythes.

The tobacco barn, likely dating to around 1920, has been storing objects since 1970, said Bob Osley, president of the Historical Society board.  The town is responsible for upkeep to the structure and appeals may be made for additional CPA money to keep the building in good shape and appropriate for storage.

Amy Novak, of member of the town’s Historical Commission, said the sheer amount of items inside shows the dedication residents have for preserving history.

“We’re a town full of collectors,” Novak said. “Inventorying is a big task, but this will be a good thing.”

“Hatfield has always been a collecting town,” Baker said. “We get to look back at that and what people have done to keep the story moving forward.”

One of the other tasks, outside the scope of the inventorying, will be to remove dust, dirt and grime from the collection.

“One of the other things we need to do is clean,” Baker said. “It will take an army of paper towels and damp rags to do that.”

In the end, Baker said she hopes the Farm Museum can be modeled after the the Tool Room at Memorial Hall at Historic Deerfield, which had been in a similar condition several years ago. Now, the Tool Room has items displayed, with context and stories behind each artifact, as well as information about the individuals who used them and donated them. 

“This can become a place with exhibits with interpretive texts, and to have more context for people,” Baker said. “We can turn a barrel full of farm implements into a more visual, graphic display.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.